IMMIGRATION
AND EDUCATION:

INTERNATIONAL
STUDENTS AT SOUTH AFRICAN UNIVERSITIES AND TECHNIKONS

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The system of education in South Africa has hitherto been
elitist and exclusionary. Post-apartheid
"massification" of higher education in South Africa
provides a real challenge for the country's universities and
technikons. The massification process - the transition from an
elite to a mass-based education system - entails increased
participation and greater expenditure. The most important aspect
of this transition is that increasing numbers of students from
financially disadvantaged backgrounds are not only seeking
admission to universities and technikons but also looking to the
government to foot the bill.

Against this backdrop, it is crucial that tertiary
institutions respond decisively and efficiently to the demand for
tertiary education from home without sacrificing or abandoning
their obligation to neighbouring countries and their
international duty. International students are an integral part
of any internationally recognized institution. It is therefore
crucial that South African institutions recognize the academic,
cultural and financial benefits to be gained from international
students. This recognition must be balanced by the demands
imposed on them by the legitimate demands of the citizenry to
redress the devastating legacy of apartheid education.

Over the last decade, tertiary education has become a major
global export commodity. About a million and a half students
travel overseas for their education every year. Of these, about
22% come from Asia and the Pacific Rim, 17% from North America,
and 14% from Europe. This phenomenon presents host institutions
with both financial gains and problems. In 1996, over 13,000
international students were studying at South African
universities and technikons. The number and proportion of
international students varies considerably with Unisa having the
highest absolute enrolment. Students from the Southern African
Development Community (SADC) region accounted for 50% of all
international students.

Who qualifies as a foreign or international student? According
to the Department of Home Affairs, a "foreign student"
is anyone who is not a South African citizen, not a permanent
resident, or does not have diplomatic exemption. In practice, the
definition and understanding of "foreignness" is not
that simple. The issue of foreignness can be a source of tension
between a section of largely black South African students and
black students from neighbouring African countries. South African
students feel deprived and invoke their citizenship or South
Africanness in the face of competition from foreign students who
compete for local resources in order to make ends meet. They
stress the foreignness of their competitors and seek to remove
them from the equation. They even blame their deprivation on
"foreign" students who do not belong.

In addition, the promotion of equity in terms of race -- to
which the South African government has committed itself -- is
seen as being open to abuse by "foreign" blacks who
stand to gain from its undifferentiated use. Of greater
significance is the reality of the better preparedness of
students and staff from other African countries who were spared
Bantu Education and are thus able to compete on merit for
undergraduate, postgraduate and staff positions.

Further complicating the determination of foreignness is the
cumbersome definition of what constitutes a neighbouring country.
For purposes of state subsidies to international students, a
diplomatic and economically and politically constructed
definition is used. Thus South Africa's neighbouring countries
are not only Botswana,Swaziland, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia and
Zimbabwe, countries with which she shares common borders, but all
the other SADC member states. The implications of this for
continued state expenditure on the education of international
students are profound.

International students have reason to feel aggrieved by recent
policy. The spectre of deportation continues to haunt them
throughout their student life and the repatriation arrangements
they are required to make in advance compound their anxiety.
International students understandably fail to divorce these
measures from the more stringent and punitive ones designed to
halt the influx of "illegal immigrants." The feeling
among some international students is that the Department of Home
Affairs is pursuing a policy of discouragement. They feel that
the policy is not only unnecessarily punitive and deliberately
designed to break their spirit but also tinged with xenophobia.
University authorities' failure to secure favourable deals for
their international students has the unfortunate consequence of
being perceived as collusion with the Department of Home Affairs.
Iinternational students see the withdrawal of subsidies as a
deliberate attempt to make fees prohibitive and exclusionary and
another of South Africa's thinly disguised excuses to curb the
influx of international students.

Universities and technikons certainly need to retain the
confidence of their foreign clientele. International students
have always voiced concerns about what they perceive to be
punitive immigration controls through their respective host
institutions. Some actions by the Department of Home Affairs
contradict some of the principles and ideals individual
institutions treasure and stand for. Most institutions have
expressed commitment to ridding their campuses of all forms of
discrimination. According to new legislation, international
students can only be employed in areas which have a direct
bearing to their studies. The legislation makes perfect sense as
it seeks to make more opportunities available to South African
students. The downside of that, however, is that if international
students are going to be excluded from certain forms of
employment offered by universities and technikons they are
attending, then that is discrimination on the basis of their
nationalities. This has the unfortunate effect of making
university authorities appear to be hypocrites who cannot live up
to the rhetoric of their mission statements.

In the wake of what international students are increasingly
beginning to perceive as xenophobic rhetoric and discriminatory
behaviour by all and sundry, and at a time when the term
"foreign" is beginning to assume some negative
overtones, South African universities and technikons must remain
the havens of tolerance and embrace heterogeneous discourses and
cultures. Xenophobic sentiments feed on perceived and real
differences and prey on feelings of deprivation supposedly caused
by the international students who does not belong. The stage is
set for tension to mount and the challenge for university and
technikon administrators is to manage that tension creatively.

Legitimate questions can be asked about the wisdom of
continued state subsidies to international students while South
African students are in dire need of financial aid. There is
general agreement that the subsidization of international
students at the expense of the South African taxpayers and
students cannot be allowed to continue. However, the withdrawal
of subsidies must be carried out with great sensitivity and that
a national policy needs to be formulated to guide the process and
make it as painless as possible for all.

An opportunity exists for South African institutions to
exploit the favourable conditions they offer and convert demand
for their places by international students from developed
countries into tangible financial gains. If sensibly managed,
this category of student has the potential to yield significant
financial rewards for the host institutions. However, the
possible economic and social advantage for South Africa in
hosting and subsidizing some international students must be
balanced against the relatively limited number of places
available at South African institutions.

In support of continued subsidies to SADC students, some point
out the advantages for South Africa of providing educational
opportunities to neighbouring countries within a broader Southern
African economic framework. They argue that South Africa owes its
neighbours an incalculable debt of gratitude for their invaluable
contribution to the demise of apartheid. Many exiled South
Africans were educated in these countries at the expense of these
countries' taxpayers. Moreover, the apartheid regime's policy of
destabilization and the wrath that neighbouring countries
incurred for supporting anti-apartheid forces did a lot to derail
these countries' development plans. Others suggest that since
expanded co-operation within the SADC countries is government
policy, it would be counter-productive to terminate all subsidies
to students from these countries.

To conclude, this overview of the policy dilemma of
international students in South Africa makes several
recommendations:

The implications for education policy of South Africa's
commitment to development in southern Africa must be
clearly defined. As a SADC signatory, South Africas
room for unilateral action is not unfettered. A clear
indication of the real benefits to both sides of hosting
SADC students is crucial.

South Africa and other SADC member states need to forge
an educational agreement whereby South Africa will commit
itself to paying subsidies for a fixed quota of students
from the SADC region. It may not be financially prudent
for South Africa to assume financial responsibility of
all SADC students at South African institutions.

Revision of the fees and subsidy policy must be informed
by all interest groups and by international trends. The
absence of a national coherent fees and subsidy policy is
bound to foment tension not only between international
and South African students but also between institutions
themselves. The position of long distance education
institutions and their foreign-based clients must also be
clarified.

Enrolling international students at tertiary institutions
is a matter of principle and must continue. Clear and
coherent policies regulating the admission of
international students at South African institutions are
needed. These should conform with policies governing
international students in other parts of the world.
Unnecessarily punitive legislation, which looks like a
policy of discouragement making international students
feel unwelcome and victimized, must be revised.

The withdrawal of state subsidies from international
students should be tempered with a knowledge of the
hardships and problems some students may face as a result
of such policy.

There is a danger that the removal of subsidies from
international students is seen as a lasting solution to
the funding woes of universities and technikons.
Massification of the education system is the real
challenge. The actions of the government must be clearly
defined to reconcile the conflicting imperatives of
redress and diminishing resources.